The reality for trans women in prison

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Orange is the New Black was not an accurate portrayal of what goes on in prison for trans women, in terms of placement:

http://www.autostraddle.com/real-life-s ... ns-186876/

I've always believed that if the state cannot guarantee the safety of the prisoner against rape/assault, then they have no right to imprison people.

I loved that show and am waiting on a second season. I don't recall any of them who were trans though. Which one was?

I also doubt that it's an accurate portrayal of what goes on in prison for any women. It's a comedy/drama. Oz might be closer to what it's actually like in prison, but I doubt that it's very close. I'm pretty sure Prison Break is NOTHING like actual prison, I mean they had a guy on death row out on a work detail.

Even if imprisoning those people keeps the general population of the free world safer from rape/assault?

Well, the annual estimate for instances of rape outisde the correctional system in the US (reported and non-reported) is 287,100.

Source: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fvsv9410.pdf (see appendix table 3 on page 12)

Here 94 percent of victims are female and 6 percent are male.

The annual estimate for instances of rape *inside* the correctional system in the US (reported and non-reported) is 80,600.

Source: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112.pdf (see table 1 on page 9 and table 7 on page 12)

Now, according to my back-of-the-envelope calculations on the basis of these data, 84.9 percent of victims of prison rape are male, and 15.1 percent are female. Note however, that this is in an incarcerated population where approx. 91 percent of inmates (prisons and jails) are male - so even though most prison rape victims are men, the risk of being raped when in prison is still higher for women.

I have found no specific statistic for transgender inmates, but the second study does report victimization rates for non-heterosexual (gay, lesbian, bisexual) inmates (see table 8 on page 18 in the second link above). Whereas 1.2 percent of heterosexual inmate report been sexually victimized in the last year, the ratio is ten times higher for non-heterosexual inmates at 12.2 percent. Considering the high marginalization of transgender individuals in general, it is only reasonable to assume that the victimization rate will be even higher for this category of inmates.

... oh, and according to the two studies above combined, 22 percent - or just above 1 out of 5 - sexual assaults in the US take place behind bars, while 0.7 percent of the US population is behind bars...

Using the above statistics and combining them with US population and total incarceration levels in 2012 yields the following (relative risk):

In the US, an incarcerated person is 31.9 times more likely to be raped than a free person.

Food for thought.

Yes. Most assuredly, yes.

The state cannot abandon its obligation to individuals on the basis of some alternative good. The state has an affirmative obligation to provide prisoners with the necessities of life, and that includes personal safety. If it fails so to do, then the legitimacy of the punishment is irreparably compromised.

The state must, I agree, punish wrongdoers. And the protection of the public peace is an important function of government. But in pursuing one important function it cannot abandon another obligation. Government must do both things. Full stop.